Epilogue.

The road to recovery was long and hard. Though a significant amount of time had passed and Sans was much better than he had once been, Papyrus doubted they were still anywhere near the finish line. That being said, they were obviously closer than they were at the start. Regardless, the smaller skeleton seemed happy. Papyrus hesitated to add 'genuinely' because though it occasionally seemed to be the case, the instances were still too scarce for it to be true enough. Sans had his ups and downs. Some days had been easier whereas some others had been harder. There had been a period where he only seemed to be regressing and Papyrus had struggled to pull him forward or to simply stop him from taking another step back.

But things were better. They weren't fantastic, but they were better and that was all he could ask for at the moment. Years had passed since Undyne found out about them and Sans's near suicide experience. Undyne was far more supportive of them now than she had initially been – in fact, she treated them as any other couple. They could kiss, hug, and cuddle in front of her without her reacting even remotely negatively. Papyrus suspected her acceptance had played a large part in getting Sans to where he now was – if not, well, it had certainly helped him. It gave the taller skeleton hope. If he and Undyne had come to accept their relationship, perhaps the rest of the Underground could as well. However, that was a battle for another day.

As of late, Sans seemed to be falling back into one of his down periods. Fortunately, due to the progress that had been made, Papyrus knew it wouldn't last for long. Nevertheless, the smaller skeleton was behaving significantly differently than all the other times his positive mindset had failed him. It almost seemed like he was waiting for something terrible to happen. Then again, Sans often seemed that way when he fell into his slumps.

Regardless, they would march through it together and they would not only come out of it stronger, but hopefully happier. This displayed solidarity and commitment had actually somehow brought the brothers closer together than they had ever been before. Papyrus supposed a fright like the one Sans had given him all those years ago would effectively do that. Of course, the fact that the smaller skeleton was actually opening up and allowing him to help him was probably more at play than the aforementioned reason. Papyrus liked how Sans now trusted and loved him enough to tell him about what was bothering him. He had only ever wanted to help and now he finally could.

The taller skeleton did everything in his power to keep Sans happy and, when he suffered a night terror or spontaneous panic attack, he did everything he could to help him through it. The only thing he couldn't yet fix was the questionable allegation that they were all stuck in some sort of time loop only Sans remembered. Papyrus still didn't know what to think about that. He didn't know if it was real and he didn't know how Sans could even go about proving it if it was real. Though his brother seemed very convincing and was utterly serious whenever he talked about it, as few as those moments were, the concept was admittedly insane. Papyrus wanted to believe him, he just didn't know if he could. For the moment, he opted to set the issue aside. Sans proclaimed the last human held the power to reset whenever they so desired and if that were true, Papyrus would simply convince them to stop. But, again, that was an issue for another day.

Today, Papyrus was happy. He was beaming. In fact, he was enveloped by a warm bliss he was certain he would never tire of. Sans had come home from his sentry shift and he had met him at the door. Papyrus couldn't quite remember why he was at the door to begin with, but it mustn't have been very important. He also wasn't quite sure of how things resulted in him fucking Sans hard and desperate against the wall, but they had and he wasn't complaining.

Sans had his legs wrapped around his waist in an effort to help maintain himself up while Papyrus used his body to pin him in place and offered additional support by holding his hip bone. He slammed into the conjured ecto hole with a delicious ferocity that had the smaller skeleton throwing his head back against the wall and crying out in ecstasy as loudly as he could. The sounds he uttered were intoxicating; they had Papyrus's head spinning with the animalistic craving for more. Lately, Sans had been having that intense effect on him a lot. Actually, it had been a very long time since they had had slow and loving sex. Now they fucked like it was going to be the last time. Not that that was bad, Papyrus enjoyed it immensely, he simply didn't understand why he lacked the patience to savour Sans.

Maybe I should do that… Papyrus thought to himself contemplatively, Take my time, tease him a lot, but also show him how much I love him…

"hann—oh! mmf! papy—" Sans whined lustfully, pulling Papyrus out of his thoughts. He hadn't realised he had gotten slightly distracted.

"Ngh! Sans…" Papyrus moaned. "I'm getting close…"

"me – ahh! – me too!" Sans managed to utter.

The coils of pleasure were tightening in Papyrus's bones fairly quickly. His thrusts were becoming erratic, and soon it would all be over despite how he never wanted it to end. Sans was gripping at his scarf and shoulders desperately. His expression exposed how wrecked he was by bliss; he couldn't even keep his mouth shut what with the endless series of moans pouring out of him. Papyrus had never seen him like this but he certainly planned on beholding the sight again very soon. Relishing Sans slowly and sensually would have to wait a little.

Finally, both Sans and Papyrus cried out in unison as they achieved their climax. It was the first time the two had been so perfectly in sync, though the thought was far at the back of Papyrus's mind. Tension and strength had abruptly left his body and he struggled to stay on his legs let alone keep Sans from falling. They breathed heavily. Both were covered in a thin layer of sweat that suddenly became bothersome and frankly gross. Papyrus had the strong urge to clean himself, but he wasn't sure he would be able to make his way up the stairs. Instead, he decided he would stay like this for a while. It have been taxing on him, but it certainly felt much easier than actually shifting positions.

"That was good…" Papyrus panted heavily, "Really good…"

"just 'good'?" Sans chuckled breathlessly, "i thought you would use more eloquent words to describe that."

"How would you describe it?" Papyrus probed mostly because he was too sexed out to think of more appropriate synonyms.

"intoxicating…" Sans breathed, resting his head exasperatedly against the wall, "addicting…"

"Those are good words." Papyrus conceded. He felt a bit stronger now, "Though I don't think they can be considered 'eloquent'."

"well dazzle me, smarty pants." Sans challenged.

"Superlative." Papyrus replied, happy to accept the dare, "Sublime. Divine."

"heh…sounding real fancy…" Sans chuckled, "especially for a guy with his pants around his ankles."

Papyrus laughed as well, pressing his forehead tiredly against his brother's. They fell into silence after that. It was a soft and comfortable quaintness that lasted what felt like a very long time. Neither minded. It was nice. Papyrus was so glad his brother was still here with him. He was also glad for the repercussions of the actions that lead them to this moment. Both the good and the bad were necessary for them to have ended up like this and Papyrus wouldn't have had it any other way.

"we can't stay like this forever…" Sans eventually muttered.

"I wish we could." Papyrus confessed.

Sans blushed a bit. "me too…" he sighed, "but wasn't there something you were meant to be doing?"

Papyrus blinked at him confused. "I don't think so…?" he said, though now that he thought about it, he felt like there had indeed been something; what, however, he couldn't quite remember.

Luckily, he didn't have to.

Without the slightest warning, their front door was abruptly kicked open by a roaring Undyne, spear in hand. Papyrus yelped in fright and held Sans close to him as he tried registering the spontaneous chaos. The captain of the Royal Guard was breathing heavily, nostrils flaring like she had run all the way to their house at top speed from Waterfall. Little did Papyrus know, it was exactly what she had done.

"Papyrus—" She roared ferociously when the sight in which she had caught them suddenly seemed to register in her mind. The fury that had once defined her vanished as she recoiled dramatically and covered her face, a small blush tainting her cheeks. "Aww, come on guys!" She shouted, stomping around like an angry toddler. "I didn't need to see that! Why are you two always so horny! This is the third time!"

"Maybe if you didn't just barge in like that…" Papyrus trailed off accusingly.

"You're literally right next to your front door!" Undyne counter argued, "This time it's not on me!"

"i'm starting to think you like seeing us like this." Sans joked with an amused grin.

Undyne stopped being dramatic for a brief moment. Her expression was deadpan as she said: "No offence; ew." Sans laughed loudly at that. "Now do either of you want to put your pants back on to make this less weird? I know we've gotten close but I don't think we're that close…"

"yet." Sans continued to joke as Papyrus let him down.

"Again: ew. But also: no." Undyne responded, glaring at the smaller skeleton, though she didn't really mean the nastiness her look conveyed.

"Could you please close the door now?" Papyrus asked, nervously glancing to see if a monster had passed and accidentally seen them.

"Sure." Undyne shrugged. She tried shutting the door only for it to fall off its hinges. "Oops."

"Undyne!" Papyrus whined, "Stop breaking my door!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have skipped out on training to fuck Sans against the wall!" Undyne retorted, arms akimbo.

"Training…" Papyrus repeated contemplatively when he suddenly remembered. "Oh…oops."

"Oops is right!" Undyne scoffed, "I guess we're even now."

"I don't think forgetting training equates to breaking my door." Papyrus maintained. "Especially when you could have just called."

"Psh! Whatever! Just get dressed so we can get going!" Undyne barked, tapping her foot impatiently.

Papyrus rolled his eyes as he pulled up his pants and marched over to his room. He changed out of his clothes into a fresher ensemble, still a bit upset he didn't get to clean the sex and sweat from his bones. He supposed there wasn't much of a point though when he would get sweaty from all the training he was about to be subject to. Thus, Papyrus shrugged the thought aside. He turned to leave his room when he stopped upon seeing Sans in his door frame. The smaller skeleton seemed uneasy with his look cast on the ground as he shifted in place. Papyrus then remembered that despite how good the sex had been, they were still in one of his brother's slumps.

"Sans…" He smiled and moved to him, "Are you okay?"

"yeah…" Sans muttered. He was lying but Papyrus decided not to say anything about it just yet. "i…i just…" he paused, gritting his teeth together in frustration – or maybe it was hesitation. "i love you." he settled with, "come back home soon. okay?"

"Okay." Papyrus grinned and leaned in for a quick kiss. "There's spaghetti in the fridge if you get peckish. I'll be back in about three hours. Maybe a little more if Undyne decides she wants to make me pay for forgetting."

"i think she will." Sans laughed softly. He still seemed uneasy. "i'll be waiting."

That last part seemed a bit grim and foreboding to Papyrus. It cemented the suspicion he had of Sans having lied about being fine. However, he still opted not to push on the matter. He and his brother had come a long way in their relationship. He now knew that Sans would come to him to tell him about what was bothering, all Papyrus had to do was give him time. He consequently kissed him one last time as a means to comfort the smaller skeleton before making his way downstairs to an impatient Undyne.

"Finally!" She groaned as she saw him descend.

The skeleton brothers' suspicion had been right; Undyne did intend on punishing Papyrus physically for having forgotten about their scheduled training. That being said, neither had anticipated it would start as soon as they walked over the door she had broken. The captain of the Royal Guard made Papyrus sprint with her all the way back to her home in Waterfall. However, somewhere along the way, their run had turned into a race. In the end, they had tied and both nearly collapsed from exhaustion once at the finish line.

"Okay—" Undyne heaved, using the cavern wall for support, "We'll rest for five minutes before sparring. No need for warm ups after that run…"

"Agreed…" Papyrus nodded just as breathlessly. He was already getting sticky with sweat again albeit in a different way.

They took a bit longer than five minutes to really catch their breaths. Both had been more drained than they had thought. Nevertheless, they still got into position for their first sparring match within ten minutes, when they were unexpectedly interrupted. The soft sobbing of a small creature caught both of their attentions. Just at the entrance of Undyne's cave was a small whimsun white with fear. It was covered in a strange grey powder except...it wasn't powder. Undyne and Papyrus exchanged uneasy looks.

"A human fell into the Underground today."